Pentecost, and the blue sage is coming into bloom. It's a cool morning, but still, the threshold of summer.
I got up early to wash my hair, which is now air-drying for a while. Planning to wear some red.
A little poem for the day, which first appeared in The Windhover, issue 28.1, and is included in my forthcoming book, Among the Living:
I still don't know, incidentally, when this book will be out. The general idea is late this year, but the last time I queried, the answer was vague. At any rate, the book begins with a 36-sonnet cycle of these hermit poems, which maybe was a risky move, in part because sonnet cycles are so common, and sonnets can tend to get repetitive (so yeah, let's start a book with 36 of them and see who's still reading by the time the 40th poem rolls around . . .).
Wearing:
*Thrifted Old Navy rayon lace-yoke blouse (I was going to sell it, but it hasn't sold, so I'm wearing it)
*Secondhand NY&Co linen-blend red skirt
*Thrifted Crocs inherited from the Texasgirl
I sort of feel dressed for a Costa Rican festival . . . I think the colors for Our Lady of the Angels, their national Marian feast, are red and white, but I'm not entirely sure.
And for a top layer, because it's fairly cool:
*Secondhand Sunbelt linen duster (also has been up for resale, but no bites)
So I guess the theme of today's Mass outfit is Things I Thought I Was Getting Rid Of, But Didn't.
I mean, you know, whatever. Wearing my white bamboo slip underneath, because this blouse really needs a camisole or something. If I want to wear it with trousers, gotta work something out.
Hair still in a gel cast, though it's almost dry. I washed it, used a little light leave-in conditioner, but then had to wet it again so that it was soaking before I applied a ping-pong-ball-sized amount of Not Your Mother's Curl Talk Foam. I let it air dry for about 90 minutes, then started diffusing, glazing on some gel (two squidges from the tube, each about the size of a nickel in the palm of my hand) and scrunching it into the ends. Then I diffused it most of the rest of the way dry. It's quite nicely wavy now, but still a bit stringy, thanks to the gel. I'll let it dry more, then scrunch, fluff, and gently comb the clumps apart with a wide-toothed comb. Then I'll be good to go.
And now I need to let the dog out.
LATER:
A lovely Mass and a little coffee-shop lunch out after: a nice way to mark the solemnity.
Right after I combed out my hair, and before we left, I took a little series of shots --- notable largely because I am wearing lip color. I don't wear makeup as a general rule, but sometimes, if I can find a nice color (and this has always been trial-and-error), I enjoy that one touch. The rest of my face . . . is what it is. I just don't feel inclined to artifice about it. There's nothing wrong with artifice, mind you: fiction and poetry are artifice, and I am here for those things. But my energy for artifice runs out somewhere short of my face.
Still, a little lip color dresses things up. And I like just having one element, as opposed to a whole face of makeup.
This is nothing that fancy. It's Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer (With Peppermint Oil) in "Fig."
I really like this color. I can't wear true reds on my lips --- that is, I've never found a red lipstick that didn't make me feel uncomfortable in some way. But I like wearing a burgundy as my version of a red, when I want a little more drama. A little drama particularly seemed indicated since I was wearing layers of white/off-white next to my face. I'd been afraid that this color might be too brown, but it really seems perfect as a red for me.
Just a little brightener here, that's all.
I have this Burts Bees Lip Shimmer in two colors: the aforementioned "Fig" and also "Peony."
They're pretty inexpensive, like under $5, which is not bad for a makeup item. That's "Peony" on the left, "Fig" on the right. The former is closer to my natural lip color and just adds a hint of color and glimmer. I just bought these myself; there's no partnering or paid advertising involved. It's just that I so seldom wear anything other than moisturizer and lip balm on my face that when I do, it seems noteworthy.
I also don't normally change out of my church clothes on Sundays, because ordinarily, my church clothes are comfortable enough for all-day lounging. Today, though, I think I am going to hang up this blouse for next time (I have enjoyed wearing it today), and maybe just put on a t-shirt or something with this skirt. It is still cool enough that I could even wear a long-sleeved something or other . . .
Like this.
*Secondhand Patagonia men's merino base-layer tee, bought December 2022, neckline cut out by me to make it more feminine, and knotted at waist
*Secondhand Birk Mayaris, bought at Easter, 2024
Amazing how a tweak --- just a quick change of shirt and shoes --- transforms an entire outfit and its vibe. I was dressed up before. Now I'm comfortable, swirling around in my lovely flared A-line skirt.
And both outfits today have been 100% secondhand (excluding undergarments). They also represent reaching for things in my closet that I haven't been in the habit of wearing, which is to say that they represent this continual process of hauling myself out of ruts and comfort zones, all in my own closet.
So anyway, got some stuff to do, but I'm happy about that.
EVENING UPDATE:
Fun video call with the Texasgirl, who had gone to an estate sale and come home with a boatload of clothes and other things, for a grand total of $8. The lady whose house it was had been a model --- not for designers or anything, but for a store chain, from the 1950s into the 1990s, and had kept her samples. By the time the Texasgirl and her sister-in-law got there, the lady's daughters were pretty ready to get stuff out of the house, so deals were to be had, and they had them. The Texasgirl even left her number, because once they're ready to sell the house, they'll want the remainder of its contents gone for free.
I'm also sending her a Poshmark purchase that didn't work out for me: a vintage turquoise Anne Klein jacket that turned out to be a lot brighter than the pictures had indicated, much more a color for a redhead than for me. If she can't use it, she'll pass it along to someone else in her network, so one way or another it'll find a home. I'd bought it thinking it would go with my NPL Cinnamon Rose Leila dress for Easter, but then it really didn't. I don't often strike out like that, and I did hang onto it, thinking I'd wear it, but I really think it would serve her better than it would ever serve me. AND I have no shortage of clothing myself, so there's no point in keeping something (else) that I'd have to push myself to wear. I am enjoying challenging myself to wear my whole closet, but there's got to be a line somewhere.
In other news, Dora tore a hole in our front-porch screen, at the north end behind the swing, big enough to put her head through --- because as it turned out, there was a half-grown possum living in the bottom of the downspout just outside, on the corner porch support. She had been barking at something and trying to get at it, from outside as well as from the porch, for several days, and now we know what it was. The husband cut up an old aluminum window screen, from a whole series we had stacked up in the garage, and repaired the hole, which was clever of him. Really we need to do more repairs, because after ten years, the porch screens are showing signs of age and instability. But on the bright side, we do have this dog who will keep us safe-ish from marsupial incursions.
Still mentally packing for Norway. Thinking if I'm going to take a longer gray dress, my Audrey is probably a better, more versatile choice than my NPL Smock, for many reasons. It's just hard to beat Wool& dresses for travel, I tell you what.
Also kind of mentally shopping the closet for outfits for this week. Things I think I'd like to wear, in a week when highs are in the 80s, with probably a lot of humidity, and when we might go to Black Mountain to see the Fire Son before he leaves for Montana:
*my purple Flax skirt with my pink Eileen Fisher merino tank --- this might actually be tomorrow's outfit. That and Birks, nice and easy. I can toss on a big shirt or light cardigan if I need another layer in the morning, but I doubt I'd need that layer for long.
*Pacific Brooklyn, because it's been about three weeks, and she's due an outing
*Ocean Teal Willow --- sleeves, but still a fairly cool, breezy dress with a pair of sandals
*Japanese linen pinafore with a shirt, probably my turquoise cashmere-silk-wool-blend tank, and maybe a linen button shirt over
*Fiona, because again it's been roughly ten days since she had an outing
That's five days' worth of outfits. It might be not bad, actually, going forward, to try to plan ahead a little, as if I were planning meals. I can at least sketch out a series of ideas to consult, and wear one of those ideas each day, but not necessarily tie an outfit to a particular day --- if that makes sense.
I think I might wear my Cinnamon Rose Leila for Mass next Sunday, because it'll have been close on a month since the last time I wore it. I do think of that dress as a special-occasion/church dress --- which is fine. Not that I wouldn't wear it on an ordinary day, but it's such a pretty dress, and feels so elevated and special, that I find myself wanting to save it for parties and nights out and the presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. I'm not going to go out and prune trees wearing it, though of course being a dresser of sycamores would be very biblical.
I also want to wear these off-white linen trousers I bought, but I'm having to work up my nerve. It's because they're white, and that's stupid, because I wear my off-white linen skirt with reasonable frequency and without being all angsty, but somehow these trousers are difficult. But they'll look nice with a big shirt or a tunic or a tank, and I need to push myself to put them on and wear them. Maybe next week.
I don't have to do this planning, of course. But in my head I kind of do it anyway, and it might be interesting as an exercise. Planning would make me think ahead about pulling together items in the closet in different combinations. I don't think I want to commit myself officially to a whole no-buy summer, but more and more, as this month wears on, I'm seeing that I have enough in that closet, and that what I need to do is wear it. In a way this is like starting a new eating regimen, for which you plan your meals and arrange your kitchen and pantry contents so that you don't fall back into old habits. I'm not going to forbid myself to acquire a new item of clothing, any more than I would forbid myself to order dessert in a restaurant if I wanted it --- but I'd really like to arrange my life so that those things are exceptions, and special occasions, and not norms. THIS is my current diet of clothing, not everything else out there squeaking, Buy me!
So, that's settled. Everybody clap.